I've never seen an Earle Bergey cover I didn't like. This is a nice one on this issue of SPACE STORIES, the least successful (five issues) of the SF pulps from the Thrilling Group. Inside are stories by Jack Vance, Kendall Foster Crossen, William Morrison (Joseph Samachson, the guy who created the Martian Manhunter for DC Comics), and little known writers Robert Zacks and Phyllis Sterling Smith. If you want to read this issue, you can find the whole thing here. The other four issues of SPACE STORIES' short run can be found on the Internet Archive, too.
2 comments:
I decided to give this a read based on the cover and credits, and while I haven't finished the Jack Vance novel the rest of it was solid. The three shorts stories are competently done and include a grim revenge tale, a tragedy and a comedic piece, none of whom overstay their welcome. The real prize is Kendall Foster Crossen's "Get Along Little Unicorn", a scifi piece in much the same satirical style as Keith Laumer's Retief stories. J. Ixion Chiron executes his personal con against Big Government on Terra with style, with a nice sting at the end for the corrupt politician who acts as the POV character.
Crossen's a familiar name from his Milo March mysteries and somewhat similar Manning Draco stories (both are insurance investigators, the latter doing his thing In Space), as well as being the creator of the Green Lama (who I know better from comics than pulps). Nice to see a piece from him I haven't encountered before, he's pretty reliable entertainment.
I've read a few of Crossen's Milo March books and enjoyed them quite a bit. I tried to read the first Green Lama pulp story a few years and couldn't get into it, but I ought to try again. A lot of times when I don't like something, it's more the mood I'm in than the book or story itself.
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